Hook, Line, and Sinker
by M. Carwright
Summary: John is suddenly thrown into a world that feels more like Earth than anything in the Pegasus should. Separated from his team and with no idea how he got there, he must find a place in this war torn world while he desperately searches for a way home.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Don't know if I'll continue with this story(never written a chapter fic before) but if there's anyone who's interested then I will for sure. Not sure if I have John's voice downpat yet but practice right? If you have any tips I would be very happy to hear them.

Hook, Line, and Sinker

It was a feeling he'd experienced only once before and that had been when a time dilation field had been trying to eat him so as the pins and needles washed over his limbs and turned into sharp jabs of pain that he couldn't quite convince his mind where phantom pains, he knew he was in trouble. Big trouble.

The world of green grass and lush trees blanked out of view and his mind whited out for a moment.

There was a flash of grey walls and cold metal. A flurry of movement in white coats and strange clinical lights and John managed to catch a glimpse of some kind of lab before everything whited out for the second time, more tingling and residual stabs of pain and then blankness.

The feeling of heat was so intense and so different from any of the previous sensations that it made him open his eyes and gasp in a startled breath. Which turned out to be a bad idea because dry dust rushed into his lungs an instant later. He coughed violently and all he could see was yellow which made him think of neural damage and panic until he realized that he was staring at sand inches from his face. He gave himself a moment to gather his thoughts and prepare himself for what he was already guessing was going to be very bad news, before gingerly rising up into a sitting position and glancing around. His first thought was Afghanistan which was even more depressing then he needed but that assumption quickly flew out the window when his eyes fell across the ruins of what looked remarkably like a car but definitely wasn't.

Ok now he was officially allowed to panic. Barely five minutes ago he'd been walking through a simple green pasture with the rest of his team on their way to visit the peaceful natives to barter for fresh fruit, how much more different was there.

"Rodney? Teyla. Ronnon!" His voice echoed across the deserted buildings crowding around him. Nothing returned his calls except for the low howl of the wind through empty windows and for a moment he let himself be relieved that they hadn't been stranded here, where ever here was, with him. It was only for a moment though because he could really use McKay's brain right now.

He gave himself a once over, no injuries and he still had his tack vest and P-90 so in the grand scheme of things he wasn't totally screwed, just marginally so. He braced a hand against the stone wall behind him and slowly levered himself to his feet.

He didn't really want to leave this area because if there was a chance that his team would come looking for him or figured out how to get him back then here was the place to be. But looking around gave him the knowledge of exactly how exposed he was standing in the middle of this empty street and his instincts were screaming at him to find cover. The skin at the back of his neck prickled and his desire to leave kicked up in intensity. He quickly scanned the tall huddled buildings along the street and picked one before ducking through the half open door.

The room on the inside made him think of Earth and he had to remind himself that he was still in the Pegasus Galaxy, or had been the last time he checked.

Overturned tables and chairs of what was probably a dinning room of some kind cluttered the next room and he turned the corner, trying not to see the evidence of a hasty departure from a happy life. He found a set of stairs and after debating with himself about the wisdom of climbing onto the second story of an abandoned building, he made his way up; hoping for a better vantage point to assess his position.

The second floor of the house was much like the first with its sad reminders of the previous occupants. He walked past an Earthlike bathroom with no running water and a child's room with dusty toys strewn across the floor before finding what he really came here for.

The second stairwell, hidden behind a very loud door, was an access to the roof above. He climbed them carefully and pushed through the trap door at the top to burst back out into sunlight and hot dry air. The second he clambered onto the roof and did a three-sixty, his heart sank.

As far as the eye could see, flat yellow building tops all sandwiched together, straight lined and blocks huddled around a narrow maze of streets and back alleyways. The view went on forever and beyond it all, he caught a glimpse of flat simmering desert.

He walked to the edge of the roof and peered into the street he started in, and immediately threw himself onto his stomach, heat pounding in surprise.

Ok so maybe his first assumption of unoccupied hadn't been all that accurate.

Slowly he pulled himself over the lip of the edge, P90 held out before him.

The man below was scanning the place John had found himself waking up in only minutes earlier. He studied the man, taking in his dark clothing and the small handheld gun strapped against his thigh. The man was lean and athletic, his back turned to John so that all he could see was the spiked black hair and olive tanned skin.

The guy stepped back a pace and glanced down the street to the right. As if on queue, five figures materialized out of the shadows of the surrounding buildings, all dressed in black and all carrying guns that brought assault-rifles and semi-automatics to mind.

His mind supplied the 'oh shit' and his eyes skittered around as he tried to remember if he'd seen another way off the roof that didn't involve going back through the house or falling two stories to the ground.

Just then the man looked up and John found himself staring into deep brown eyes with a piercing intentness that made his skin crawl. Danger bells went off in his mind and John's day went from bad to really bad as he was spotted by the six guys below him. He scrambled to his feet and backed hurriedly away from the edge, glancing to the right and left and wondering if he could jump the distance to the next roof on the right before those guys stormed through the door on the left. It was a good six feet from the edge to the next roof but maybe …

The decision was made for him when he heard the sounds of boots hitting the stairs behind him, and so, counting on the hopeful possibility that they wanted him alive, he took off. Five steps to the edge and he was flying through the air, granted it wasn't his most preferred method of flying, a fact greatly enforced by the new bruises he collected as he rolled into a landing. He used the momentum and recovered from the roll to sprint across the roof. There were shouts behind him and he half expected the impact of a bullet but it never came. The next gap was hardly an obstacle at barely three feet of separation and he was on the next roof, his progress making him hopeful that he could use the tops of the buildings to put some distance between him and whoever those men were back there before he would have to return to the streets and find a place to hide.

But then all his half formed plans deteriorated as a line of people suddenly materialized in front of him, stepping out of thin air all at once and he skidded to a halt, weapon up.

The second group ranged around him in a loose semi-circle, blocking his path, all in black, all with hands casually resting on guns. He was trapped.

"Hi guys, that was a neat trick. You'll have to show me how you do that sometime." John scanned the men as they watched him with blank expressions.

The man in the middle stepped forward and addressed him calmly, "You are out numbered. Put down your weapon."

John eyed the man, knowing that surrender was good advice but far from comfortable with the idea. Ok, ya he was the intruder here, where ever here was, but these guys had shown up knowing exactly where to look and that was just a little bit creepy. Still he figured he'd give the guy the benefit of the doubt and slowly set his P90 on the ground before adding his berretta and knife to the pile.

The guy who had addressed him gave him a small nod of approval before motioning his men forwards. In seconds they'd padded him down, collected up his weapons and both radios and had his hands securely tied in front of him.

They ushered him down something like a fire escape behind their leader, fingers twitching and eyes calculating, sharp as hawks and just waiting for trouble.

John debated his options and found that he didn't have too many at this point. He needed information and these people were the ones who would most likely have the answers to his questions so he was just going to have to bide his time, learn what he could and maybe then find a way to escape.

They arrived at street level to be greeted by the first guy and the group that had discovered him.

"Catch of the day?" the first guy said, brown eyes raking across John from head to toe in one narrow eyed glance. John caught the fleeting impression of a dark anger floating somewhere underneath before the man's face blanked expertly.

"Slippery enough." agreed the leader of the party that had caught him. "Athos, radio the Captain. Ask where we should meet up." The man he addressed gave him a short crisp salute and walked off a ways to make the call in private. Then the leader turned his attention to one of the men of the previous party. "Did you get any readings off the residual?"

"Yeah," drawled the man in question, "but it's garbled beyond belief. It'll take some time to figure out where the window came from."

John's attention perked at that, knowing it was somehow vital to getting home. But the conversation was cut short when the man with the same name as the Athosian home world returned with the meeting location.

"Laurance." the leader jerked his head in John's direction; a silent command for 'you're in charge of making sure the prisoner doesn't do anything stupid' which John found mildly insulting. A guy, who reminded him a bit of Lorne, grabbed his arm and guided him forward as the platoon or whatever it was, began marching down the street to presumably 'meet their leader'.

The black haired man with the piercing brown eyes dropped back until he was hovering at John's back, and he didn't need to see the death glare to feel it drilling through a spot between his shoulder blades. Definitely no love lost there.

"I gather it's Laurance?" John asked to the man whose stern but nonbrutal grip on his arm was making sure he got to where ever they were going. He figured he'd try his luck in that direction because whatever he'd done to piss the other guy off, he was pretty sure would get him something equivalent to the finger if he tried to strike up a conversation.

The man gave him a sideways glance and a silent nod.

Ok so not talkative but hey, it was better than a punch to the mouth to shut him up, which he didn't need to be a mind reader to know the guy behind him was thinking.

"You, ah, lived here long?"

Laurance frowned in an obscure way that made John wonder what he'd said or hadn't said.

"Cause you see, I just got here and it kind of looked deserted, if you know what I mean."

"Shut him up." that from the man behind.

Laurance just kept up the pace like he didn't see a need to obey that order. And that made John wonder if perhaps the man who'd taken offense to him wasn't actually military like the rest of the people in the group obviously were.

"You know, I don't know what I did but I'm sure it's all just a big misunderstanding." thinking that if this man had a problem with him than it was better to get it out into the open now before the guy descided to take matters into his hands. He craned his neck trying to make eye contact. The fact that he couldn't see him was making him nervous.

"Stop speaking. He won't believe you and you'll only make things worse for yourself."

John turned back to stare at Laurance in surprise. "So you do talk." Laurance didn't respond. But still, if he'd managed to find an ally, than maybe this would work out somehow.

Another guard flanking them snorted in amusement, only to get shoved from behind into a brief stumble. "It's a lesson you still haven't learned." retorted the one who'd done the shoving, but he was grinning as he said it.

"Frack off."

"Ladies!" the leader turned around to walk backwards and gave each of his men a long glare.

The fact that John felt like he'd been captured by a bunch of marines was weirding him out. But then there was no time to consider anything else because apparently they'd arrived.

The leader turned down a half hidden set of stairs that lead below street level while the rest of his men took up defensive positions around the parameter. Laurance guided him down the steps and unfortunately the guy with the grudge came too.

They entered through a heavy metal door into a bunker of some kind. The whole place was lit by daylight fluorescent lights inset into the walls and ceilings and the entryway was built in such a fashion that anyone trying to storm this place would be bottlenecked and picked off without much of a fight. The small eddies in this hallway like room, were carved into the wall like straight-angle triangles to provide cover for the defenders while providing none for the attackers. It was an ingenious design and it was well used if the pockmarks and bullet scars John kept walking past were any indication.

The leader took a sharp right turn and they walked past the first security force men and the first few rooms that branched off from the hallway before they brought him into a room that was big, square, and empty.

Laurance walked him to the center of the room and let go of his arm before returning to stand just inside the door.

His buddy with the ever present death glare prowled into view, circling around him until they were staring eye to eye.

John decided he wasn't going to take any shit and glared right back.

Something darkened in the man's face.

"Hey, shove it back in its cage. We want to be able to talk to him." the leader barked.

The man didn't even twitch.

The leader marched over and slid a shoulder between them, glaring at the man. John got the impression that it was more to protect him than the other way around. "Jagger. Cut it out." it was soft but it was absolutely final and John watched as something in the man's face flinched before he fell back into the shadows around the edges of the room.

The leader held his position for a moment longer before walking away, apparently satisfied that Jagger wasn't going to pounce on their helpless prisoner.

John took the moment to look around; saw stone walls, stone floors, stone ceilings and minimal amounts of lights and decided it was a well wasted five seconds of his life. After that he took to examining the people in the room with him, Jagger he couldn't see; he was going to freak out about that later, and Laurance he could already recognize so he studied the leader of the platoon thingy. He was maybe only a little bit younger than John himself and the lines on his face said he was a man who smiled a lot. Lean athletic body like everyone else he'd seen so far and dark haired, which come to think of it, seemed to be the norm since John couldn't remember seeing anyone with blond hair in the group. The man was experienced, evident in the way he walked and saw everything at once and by the way he led which seemed to be as much by example as casual know-how. He liked the guy and apart from the fact that he was being held hostage, the only one to treat him with any kind of hostility was Jagger and he seemed to have his own reasons.

He was fairly confident that he could reason with these people which should have been good news. It wasn't.

He was starting to realize that he wasn't in the Pegasus galaxy anymore.

The door to the room clanged open and two more people walked in. The first was a woman with dark mahogany hair and a slight frame that reminded him enough of Teyla that he figured in all likely hood she could probably kick his ass, and the second was a man that John bet himself five bucks was a doctor because he was the only one not carrying a weapon of some kind.

The new man gave him another one of those head to toe scrutinizes while the woman's eyes scanned right past him and settled on the platoon leader. And there was the dynamic right there. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, the unheard communication so easy and automatic that they probably had been fighting battles together for a long time.

Then the moment ended and the woman walked up to stand in front of John. This time she did look, eyes going from face to hands to clothes and back up to meet his gaze. Grey eyes telling him that she'd gained enough from her inspection that she wasn't going to take any bullshit because she had the evidence to refute it. It was a fierce look and she used it to stare him down, a whole head taller than her and she wasn't fazed a bit, knowing that she'd probably faced down guys bigger than him and some probably more than twice her size because he recognized he was staring at the leader of their people.

"Hi, I'm John. I'd shake your hand but I'm a bit tied up at the moment."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not one for ceremony." straight faced and casual like this really was just two strangers meeting on a Sunday stroll through the park.

"So ah, nice place you've got here. Cozy," because he could do this all day if they wanted.

She nodded seriously, "Especially with hundreds of people crammed down here because bioweapons make the surface unlivable for days at a time."

"Ya war's a bitch like that."

She smiled ruefully then, flipping his preconceptions and throwing him off balance as easily as if she'd physically reached out and knocked him on his ass. "You'd think they'd stop wasting the money after it didn't work the first few times. But that's what happens when bureaucracy overruns democracy, you concentrate so much on the paperwork that you end up forgetting that they're stupid decisions to begin with."

Ok so definitely a whole lot more going on here then he really wanted to know about.

Her face turned serious again, "We're under siege here John. Either you tell me something that convinces me you aren't an enemy of mine or I kill you." The last part was said so casually that anyone not paying attention would have missed it. But it wasn't an empty threat; she'd skillfully set it up so that when she said it he'd know she wasn't bluffing because she'd revealed just enough to paint a picture of how hard she fought for survival. Elizabeth would love her.

"Look, if you want the truth, I have no idea how I got here and I don't even know where here _is_."

She didn't react, waiting for him to continue.

"I'm part of a team of peaceful explorers who go through the 'gate; big round, built by the ancients, ancestral-ring thing." he waved around vaguely, "Stargates; you know stabilized wormholes that connect one planet to another. Look anyways, before I got here I was walking through a nice grassy green field on another planet with my team. I'm not even supposed to be here."

"And your 'peaceful' team is military?"

"No, just me and well, Ronnon but he doesn't count because um, long story."

"And the other members of your team?"

"Teyla and Mckay. You'd like Teyla. She's the leader of her people and can kick my ass. McKay's our genius."

She smiled briefly, maybe hearing the exasperated fondness in his voice. "Full name and rank." The way it rolled off her tongue gave it an unusual weight.

He hesitated; it was the make it or break it question, the somehow pivotal last one. He very carefully looked her in the eye and answered it with as much honesty as possible, "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard of the United States Air Force."

Her eye brows rose in surprise. "That's a high rank for someone in the field."

"Where I come from it isn't all that impressive." which was the truth as far as Earth was concerned. Putting aside for now how the heck they even had the same ranking system.

"Well Colonel," she reached into a sheath at her thigh and pulled out a knife. He tensed.

"I still don't understand why you're here or how you got here but perhaps we'll get the answers to those questions soon enough. As things stand, I can't afford to keep hostages." she twirled the knife in her hand and it flashed menacingly in the puddle of light. She narrowed her eyes and before he could come to a conclusion as to how he was going to defend himself she sliced through his bonds.

He stared because what the heck? He rubbed his wrists subconsciously, trying to connect oh shit I'm dead to I'm free.

She was watching him and suddenly without warning and a speed that made him dizzy, she grabbed the front of his tack vest and yanked him down so that she was right in his face, knife against his throat. "You_ ever_ betray my trust and you'll be dead before I even have a chance to come kill you myself!" and she released him before sheathing her knife.

She let that point sink in for a moment before she smiled, "Captain Ren Shale, leader of the wildly unpopular contingent of rogue commandos and refugees. To my left I'm sure you've met Laurance your escort and Mavrek my second in command, also, Dr. Caspian Vandreth sadly our only actual doctor and behind me somewhere, Jagger Felin, my assassin partner."

She held out her hand.

He stared at her because still; what the heck? But then Teyla's voice piped up from somewhere in his head and reminded him to be diplomatic and not insult the nice people with weapons. He shook her hand, wondering where to go from there because frankly he had no place _to_ go.

"Laurance if you wouldn't mind showing Colonel Sheppard around when you have a moment. Mavrek, have some quarters prepared. I have some things to attend to but if you'd like to join me for supper Colonel I would be honored. Dinner's at 1900." with that she gave a nod of satisfaction and left the room.

The platoon leader, Mavrek, stepped forwards with a smile, "Welcome to Hob. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Laurance will remain your guide for the time being and I suspect Cas," he motioned to the doctor, "will want to complete a cursory exam but I'll leave that up to him. Just figured you'd appreciate some fair warning." he winked, and then excused himself with a lazy salute. John watched, still in a daze, as the doctor scowled before following the second in command out of the room.

He shook himself back to this strange reality that he'd somehow stumbled into and realized he was still standing stupidly in the center of the room that looked and felt like a cell while his appointed guide was patiently holding the door to his freedom. He followed the silent man's lead and tried not to make it look like he was racing for the hole in the prison he couldn't quite convince himself he wasn't in.

As he was leaving he felt the dagger sharp gaze of the assassin lurking in the shadows at his back. It made his hand tighten convulsively; wishing for the heavy weight of his P-90. The menacing presense served to drive the point home; he may not be a hostage but he wasn't free either and he might have skimmed by being called an enemy but he wasn't exactly trusted. He was a stranger in this strange world and that could easily prove fatal.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: A very big thank you to those who reviewed, this is for you.

Disclaimer: Apart from the OC's, don't own, don't profit.

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Commander Nathan Aubrey stared at the incompetent man before him and scowled. He did not need this right now. He already had all the problems he could handle with the task of squashing that rebel group and their AWOL military leader, a task that had already proven to be harder than it would seem.

"So you're telling me that not only was the test a complete failure but that you managed to lose the scientist running the test in a parallel reality _in_ _another galaxy _while another man of unknown origin was transported here whom you also managed to lose because the system overloaded and sent this man, who may be of immense tactical advantage, into enemy territory and is now most likely sitting in the hands of our enemies as we speak. Did I get that right or am I missing something? Because I'm not sure if it's physically possible to screw up more than that in one day." he glared at the mousy man in the white lab coat.

The man gulped and twisted his hands nervously, "No Sir, that's all."

Aubrey lent back in his chair, fingers steepled. He watched the man shift self-consciously under the scrutiny and he waited, letting the man sweat under his cold calculating stare.

"I don't care if you and your team have to work twenty-eight hour days; I want this taken care of. And the rift system better be back online within the hour or I will personally see that you are listed as a traitor for sabotaging our defensive capabilities and have you executed for treason." he stood up and loomed over the man, "Now get out."

His face nearly as white as his coat, the base's head scientist scurried from the room.

Captain Price, Aubrey's second in command, entered his office and stood at attention; predicting his Commander's needs.

"Price, I want that man. There's no telling how valuable he could prove. I don't care if he has to die but I refuse to let our enemies profit from this. Track him, and if you can't bring him back alive, kill him."

-----------------

The underground base was actually really small, as he soon discovered from being lead through it on the way to his new room, more like an underground bunker than anything. Laurance was as talkative as he'd been before and as he followed the man's broad shoulders he was lamenting the fact that Mckay wasn't around to fill the void with complaints and snide remarks. Then again if Mckay had been here than he wasn't quite so sure this whole thing would have played out like it had and at the moment John couldn't decide if that was good or bad. Well at least he wasn't a hostage anymore or he didn't think he was anyway, he was still a bit confused about that, but this new shadow he'd managed to find was decidedly not cool. The skin at the back of his neck prickled again as he felt dark eyes watching him from somewhere down the passageway they'd just left. The assassin wasn't being inconspicuous about his trailing them and John wasn't convinced that was a good sign.

Laurance opened an unmarked door inset into the wall and beckoned John forwards. He entered the closet sized room and began climbing the ladder that Laurance motioned at. In no time they were back above ground in another seemingly empty blasted out building and Laurance lead them around a corner and up a flight of stairs and suddenly there were people. The building went from disrepair to lived-in in the space of one floor. John paused a moment to reorient himself and recover his bearings.

The large room looked like a common room you'd find in a dorm hall, couches and tables and chairs and even what looked something like a TV sat in the corner. A few people glanced in his direction curiously but either the sight of someone new was a common occurrence or the news of his arrival had spread really fast because no one took the time to stop and gawk.

"Laurance." a tall lanky man clapped Laurance on the shoulder in greeting, "Why is it that you always get the honors of showing off the establishment to our guests?"

"Likely because Ren can't trust you to keep your nose to yourself."

The man put a hand over his heart in a mock gesture of pain, "That hurts."

Laurance chuckled. He turned to John suddenly and gestured to the lanky man beside him, "This is Perej, be careful what you say around him. He gossips like a teenage girl."

"Hey! I do not." Perej shot back indignantly. He held out a hand towards John and he shook it. "You've been here less than a day and I heard you've already got a date with the Captain, not bad Colonel."

"A date?" John asked somewhat nervously.

Laurance rolled his eyes. "Kedar," he turned to a man leaning casually against a wall nearby, "would you mind?" The man straightened up and gave them a toothy grin.

"Oh that's just not fair. You aren't allowed to threaten me with other people's ass kicking skills, besides, I was just being curious."

"Some other time. Let the man get settled first." Laurance turned to continue walking but he stopped and turned back to Kedar, "Could you do something about Jagger? He's doing that creepy thing of his again and it's making my fingers twitch. Just talk to him for me, I think something's on his mind." With that he turned and resumed his pace, leaving John to follow in his wake.

"So, uh…" John started as they entered a corridor with rooms on either side.

"Perej is one of the best Tacticians I've ever seen and that's mostly due to his intelligence gathering skills, he's got informants everywhere and he's observant as all hell. If there's something you want to know about someone he's your man but I'm serious about watching what you tell the guy if you don't want that information to be used against you."

"You seem abnormally talkative all of a sudden." John narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him.

Laurance shrugged. He opened the door to a small windowless room with a cot and a bedside table. There was a small pile of cloths and sheets on the bed.

"This is where you will sleep. It's hard to get water around here so the best we can do is the common showers at the end of the building." He lent against the door frame as he watched John explore the tiny space.

John got the impression Laurance wanted to say something else, so he waited patiently.

Laurance cleared his throat, "Look, there's something you need to understand." He avoided making eye contact, "You aren't the first person to show up here unannounced, and you wouldn't be the first if you betrayed the Captain's trust either. Trust is hard to give around here and a lot of people are beginning to think Ren shouldn't even bother. If what you say is true, then you need to be careful, very careful." He looked up from the floor and met his gaze, "But if you lied…"

The end was left hanging but it was as clear and cold as ice.

-------------------

John had never been good at sitting around and waiting for something to happen. He preferred action, even thrived in it when his head was in the game, so after Laurance promised to collect him later for his supper obligation and left, he decided to do a little exploring of his own.

The sun was sitting comfortably above the horizon as he left the building and entered the street. It was quiet, like it had been when he first got here. Nothing but the wind, moaning through the crumbling city. The evidence of war was everywhere and John tried to stifle the memories of flying over burning towns; the acrid black smoke billowing into the air burning into his lungs as his chopper tossed swirling eddies in the thick viscous pillars of black.

He once again found himself on the roof of a building, overlooking the destruction these people called home. He tried to pinpoint the exact location of his arrival but all the flat tops looked the same and he marveled at the strategic advantage of the maze of narrow streets; easy to get lost in and these people would be hard to find.

He'd fallen into the middle of a besieged deathtrap. Now all he had to do was convince these people he wasn't their enemy and then find a way home. Ya, piece of cake.

At least he knew who to talk to; he needed to find that man Perej.

John frowned, thinking about that; maybe Laurance had introduced him on purpose. Laurance had told him exactly what he'd needed to know, but he'd also given him fair warning. He was beginning to understand that he had found an ally or at least someone who wanted to be one.

He rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the knots of tension. The tight knit atmosphere of these people reminded him of Atlantis and he wondered what his team was doing. He could imagine Rodney bitching and acidic as he was confronted with a problem he didn't know the answer to; Ronon was probably pacing impatiently with Teyla calmly keeping the peace. The chances of them coming to his rescue were slim and he knew it. He was just going to have to get out of this one on his own.

The sudden scuff of a boot behind him broke the silence and he spun around in surprise. Five feet away stood Jagger, his sharp angry gaze slicing through space between them. John tensed, feeling the dangerous intent behind the man's smooth stance.

Jagger smiled at his adversary, "You know when Laurance said 'be careful' I imagine he was referring to not going anywhere on your own. With no one around, who will refute my claims? As far as I'm concerned you work for them and I just caught you making contact with the enemy."

"Now hold on a minute. I don't know where you keep getting this idea. I'm not here to hurt anyone. If you tell me what's got you so convinced then maybe we can sort this out, you know, peacefully. Before someone really does get hurt."

The man smirked, "You just don't get it. You will soon enough." and he launched himself forwards.

John twisted away from the man's lunge and shifted into a defensive stance. Jagger followed through with a crescent kick that would have knocked him senseless if he hadn't ducked in time. John came up swinging, fist flying through thin air as the assassin danced out of reach. He turned to follow and managed to block a vicious jab to his jaw before the man hooked a foot in his stance and yanked him off balance. John stumbled and received a brutal elbow to the gut before he managed to roll away from his attacker. Jagger followed him across the roof, barely breathing hard and eyes wild with untamed energy.

John's eyes strayed to the untouched gun strapped to the man's thigh. The assassin was toying with him. John pulled himself to his feet, his features darkening angrily. He didn't want to fight this man but he obviously didn't have a choice.

Jagger swept forwards with a right hook which John blocked and countered with straight jab to the face. The assassin caught his wrist and spun it behind his back, forcing him to his knees before snaking an arm around his neck.

He rammed his head into the man's face and twisted out of the choke hold. Jagger stumbled back and John bounced to his feet, lashing out with a kick that the nimble assassin barely managed to duck away from.

John tackled the man around the waist and they crashed onto the sand covered roof. They rolled, grappling for position.

John caught the glimpse of a fist out of the corner of his eye but was too late to block it as it connected with his cheekbone. Bursts of light exploded in his vision but his fingers had already found what he needed. He rolled away from the man beneath him, coming up in a half crouch with the man's gun steady in his hands.

Jagger rolled to his feet on his end of the roof and smiled darkly at the gun pointed at his heart. His eyes flickered across the space.

"Don't move." John commanded; voice as steady as his hands.

The golden orb of the sun was just touching the horizon beside them as they stood like silhouettes, black against the golden sky in a yellow land.

"Come now John Sheppard, why not just end this now."

"That's not a bad idea, but it isn't up to me."

The man raised a curious eyebrow, "It's called pulling the trigger. I'm sure a man in your position has heard of it."

"See now it's you who doesn't get it." John threw the gun over the edge of the roof. It was a gamble but he thought he had a pretty good idea of what was going on. "I'm not here to be anyone's enemy, especially not yours." With that he turned away and walked back to the stairs. He had a dinner engagement to get to.

His back turned to the man; John Sheppard never saw the satisfied smile that flitted across the man's face before the blank mask swallowed it back up.

-----------------

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	3. Chapter 3

A/N: This is a bit later than I planned but it's also a lot longer than I planned. Also, I'm looking for a Beta so if anyone's interested…

Disclaimer: John Sheppard and the rest of the Stargate universe aren't mine.

**Hook Line and Sinker Part 3**

Laurance came to collect him barely a minute after he got back to his room.

He led him back through the underground bunker and they walked in silence. John was too lost in thought to bother coaxing a conversation out of Laurance and the man didn't seem to see a need for speech, neither did he comment on the red bruise blooming across John's cheekbone.

As the sun gradually set, it grew chilly and John had zipped up his jacket in an effort to stay warm; it was even colder underground.

They rounded a corner in the maze of corridors and Laurance stopped in front of a plain metal door.

"This is as far as I take you," he said. "Just go down this hall and it'll be the last door on your right."

"Thanks." John said as he watched him walk away.

He turned back to stare at the door, wondering briefly if he should just forget the whole thing and go back to his room. But he hadn't been paying attention on their way here and now he had no idea how to get back. _Oh ya, smart move there John,_ he reprimanded himself. Well it wasn't like he had a choice; may as well just get on with it.

He reached a hand for the latch. 'This is as far as I take you' – ya that was mildly ominous. He was just about to open the door when it opened on its own accord.

John lurched back in surprise; hands going for weapons that weren't there, his heart fluttering uncomfortably before his eyes finally met the blue ones staring back at him.

"Uh hi." he said, smiling sheepishly at the woman on the other side of the threshold.

"Mommy?" a little voice rang out and John looked down to find two big green eyes peeking out at him from behind the woman's leg.

The woman chuckled, "It's alright Lily." She reached behind her and gently pushed the child to stand beside her, "See? It's just the man who's visiting from a far away place."

The little girl stared up at him, eyes wide with fear and awe. She smiled timidly and he returned it with a grin of his own.

"You're tall." she whispered, hand still tangled in the fabric of her mother's pants.

He laughed, "I guess I am."

This time her smile was confident and her eyes sparkled with excitement. She opened her mouth to say something else but the woman intercepted it with a calm hand over the girl's lips.

"Honey, it's way past your bedtime, and if you get all excited you won't be able to sleep. You'll be too tired to see Daddy in the morning." She looked back up at John and smiled, "And I'm sure the man has things to do, so we best not interrupt him."

The child's face fell but she nodded, "Ok."

The woman brushed a hand through her daughter's cinnamon locks. "If you're looking for Ren just go to the end of the hallway, last door on your right then make a left. She should be waiting." She pointed behind her.

"Ya thanks, that's what I was told."

The woman smiled her goodbye and ushered her child down the hall; the little girl shooting curious glances in his direction all the way.

John shook his head ruefully and continued on his path.

The corridor he was walking down turned out to be the access tunnel to the underground living quarters. The daylight bulbs had been dimmed down to a soft orange glow and John found himself walking past families settling in for the night. Each tiny room held two family groups; some so crammed in that there was barely room to walk between the bunks. Everywhere he looked he saw children and mothers and babies, the few men he passed were hollow-eyed and distant and he couldn't help but feel the exhaustion that radiated from these people.

And for the first time the point finally came across; these people were at war, and they were losing.

He followed the directions and passed around the corner to find their leader waiting as promised. She stood up as he entered the room and crossed the space to shake his hand. "Colonel, glad you could make it." her gaze strayed to the bruise on his cheekbone and she smiled.

He narrowed his eyes and wondered if her greeting was more than a simple pleasantry. "Oh you know; tried my best." he said with a return smile.

The Captain motioned to the table in the center of the room; set for two with a midsized bowl of something stew-like in the center.

"Please, sit."

He obliged and settled himself into the seat facing the door, his back to the wall because this might just be the kind of dinner that ended with a murder mystery.

She joined him and spooned out some of the stew stuff into a bowl, she handed it to him, her grey eyes examining him across its steaming rim.

"Excuse the light meal, we're running low on food stores and it's about time we went on a grocery run." she said as she served herself a bowl.

"Ya I wouldn't think you'd be able to grow your own food around here." he said, genuinely curious about how they managed to survive in this place.

"No the soil is too toxic." She took a sip of her stew-soup and didn't embellish further.

"So…" he said awkwardly, feeling the chill in the room. He took a sip from his bowl and hid a grimace; the bland taste hitting his tongue before racing down his throat in fire.

_Come on John; get your head in the game. _Usually he was pretty good with the ladies but the woman across from him wasn't biting. And who was he kidding? She was warlord to a band of insanely loyal misfits standing with a slowly tightening noose around their necks with smiles on their faces saying we have aces up our sleeves; mess with us and we will fuck you up. It was a look he wasn't unfamiliar with; in fact he'd used it once or twice himself, but she had it perfected to an art.

Injured wild animals were dangerous and unpredictable but so were desperate people and he definitely wouldn't want to be her enemy.

"You're a leader among your people." she said suddenly, steel-grey eyes catching his gaze and pinning him to his chair. It wasn't a question.

He raised one eyebrow, "Was it something I said or do I just look the part?"

"Leaders are forced to see the world differently."

_Or you know, galaxy. _John took another taste of his stew-soup.

"Tell me about your enemies Colonel."

He gave her a blank look. "Enemies?" he asked innocently.

She smiled, "Peaceful explorers don't carry around weapons as effective as yours if they don't have dangerous enemies."

She'd backed him into a corner on that one.

She lent back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, "I'll be honest with you Colonel John Sheppard; if what you say is true…then I'm very curious about where you come from. I have questions, question that I would like answers to. If you will not give them willingly then I will just as soon force you, but I have another way to get what I want. I will ask you my questions and you will ask me yours and perhaps we can help each other out."

It was a reasonable suggestion and anyways, worrying about telling them something that would compromise Atlantis would be a mute point if he never found a way home.

"A question for a question huh? Ok, I can do that." he nodded.

She opened her mouth to speak and John held up his hand, "And out of the goodness of your heart, you're going to give me the first question." he said cheerfully, making sure it didn't sound like an option.

She just shrugged.

"What's up with the disappearing-reappearing trick?" he asked; that small show of power had been nagging at him the whole time he'd been here.

"It's a localized version of the rift technology."

His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline; like hell he was going to let her get away without explaining that one further.

She smirked, and John got the feeling that he'd just given her something she'd wanted, free of charge.

"Rift technology - with a small concentration of energy we can rip open the fabric of our reality simultaneously in two different places which we call Windows. When you step through one side you come out through the other because the possibility has been created that the Windows are in the same place at the same time and are in fact the same Window. It is the main source of long-distance travel in this world."

He tried very hard not to think about that too seriously; he hated alternate realities. _Right so like Stargates except you can make them whenever you want, where ever you want._

"Tell me about your enemies."

"That wasn't a question." John pointed out.

She chuckled, "True. Who are your enemies?"

"The Wraith, the Genii, the Asurans, oh and about half of the rest of the Pegasus Galaxy." he quipped.

"Then it looks like we have something in common." she said, and this time the smile was genuine.

The conversation continued like that for a while with both of them taking turns to ask and answer questions. John told her about the threat of the Wraith and a small bit about Atlantis and Stargates and she told him about the war and the two societies that had been entrenched in it for half a century when Mavrek suddenly knocked on the door and walked into the room to whisper something in the Captain's ear.

John hadn't noticed how much more relaxed she had gotten as the evening progressed until it all disappeared as she listened to the words spoken to her. He watched with growing unease as the woman tensed almost imperceptibly, her face turning serious again.

Captain Ren Shale stood up from her chair, "I'm sorry but I need to cut this short. Mavrek will take you back to your room." she gave John a thin smile. "Till later Colonel." and she left.

John turned his attention to Mavrek and took in his rumpled appearance, the bruised circles around his eyes and realized the man must've just come from sleeping.

The second in command motioned him forwards and he followed the man as they marched down the corridor in the opposite direction John remembered arriving in. He chewed his bottom lip nervously, not used to being so far out of the loop. He wanted to know what was going on, no scratch that; he _needed_ to know what was going on, but he already figured they wouldn't tell him anything. As far as he knew, they still considered him a security risk.

As promised, Mavrek led him straight to his room but before he closed the door he turned to John, "It's not going to be safe for a while, so I suggestion you don't wander around till we give the all clear."

"What's happening?" he asked, feeling way too blind for his own comfort.

"You know I can't tell you that." and he closed the door with a short nod of goodbye.

John paced the room for a moment after he left, angry at the feeling of helplessness he kept coming up against. What could he do? _Nothing if I don't know what's going on. _

He told himself to forget about it. There wasn't anything he could do sitting here with only the clothes on his back so why bother wasting sleep over it? He took the initiative and laid himself out on the cot, closing his eyes and trying to loosen his tense muscles.

* * *

Five hours later and he gave up. He got up and pulled on his jacket before heading out into the hallway. He followed the sound of voices and came out in the common room, where he guessed that about half the people bunked in this building had gathered. Some of them turned to stare as he entered the space but most just continued with whatever they were doing and John got the impression that it mostly consisted of waiting.

He scanned the crowd, looking for even a remotely familiar face, and spotted Perej and the darker man Kedar lounging off to the side. He weaved through the group of people to join them and Kedar straightened up from leaning against the wall as he noticed John heading towards them.

"Hey what's going on?" he asked, hoping they would be more forthcoming than their superiors.

Perej was sitting on the edge of a desk and he smiled grimly, "Got a call in that a group of refugees were going to try to make their way into the city."

"And that's bad." John guessed, silently urging the man to continue.

Kedar nodded, "Very."

"It means we have to fight off the attack that tries to prevent them from getting here." Perej clarified.

Now he was getting the picture; these soldiers were on standby.

"Do we know when the attack will start?" he asked.

"No, but we'll know when it does." Kedar said in all seriousness and John sensed he wasn't referring to a radio signal.

They waited in silence after that, each apparently lost in thought. Kedar had settled back against the wall and he hadn't so much as twitched since; which reminded him of Ronon, while in contrast Perej was constantly in motion, eyes watching the crowd with calculating interest.

Ten minutes felt like eternity and the atmosphere was charged with energy until the battle finally began. And Kedar hadn't been kidding; the first warning they got was a high pitched screeching whistle that dissolved into an explosion that rocked the entire building. Sand hissed down the walls and barely a second after the room stilled, another whistle ripped through the air. Instantly the people in the room leapt into action and Perej grabbed John's arm with a strong-fingered grip. He pushed through the crowd, pulling John behind him while Kedar followed right on his heels.

"What…" John tried to ask but the sound was deafening and he didn't even hear his own voice.

He struggled to stay on his feet as the man pulled him down the stairs amongst the mass of humanity. People crammed down the hatch into the bunker, everyone moving as fast as possible without trampling anybody.

Another detonation rocked the foundation and the stone building groaned above them.

Kedar tapped Perej and John on the shoulder, calm but insistent, and motioned for them to follow him. They headed for the front exit, sand trickling down around them as they broke free from the tangle of people.

Before he knew it they were standing in the narrow street, a soft glow just touching the horizon and spreading its tendrils across the sky. As John watched, a bright purple streak whistled menacingly overhead and he stood stunned as it crashed into the stone houses down the street. The heat from the plume of fire seared across his face and he ducked instinctively as the concussive boom clenched at his internal organs with frightening force.

Stone chunks the size of his head were shaken loose from the building faces around him and he stared in horror as the neighboring house groaned loudly and began folding in on itself like a collapsing deck of cards.

Strong fingers dragged him forwards and he stumbled to keep up with the man. Kedar was standing in the doorway across the street urging them on. Another purple streak whistled across the sky but this time John didn't look. They stepped into the house as it exploded; it was so close that the shockwave knocked them to the ground. Glass burst in the heat and John felt the hair on the back of his hands singe away as he covered his head.

His ears were ringing as he got back to his feet, pulling Perej up with him. Blood trickled down the side of the man's face and John watched him wipe it away from his eye. Perej pushed him further into the room, towards where Kedar was sweeping rubble to the side to reveal a secondary access to the underground bunker. John kept an eye on the man behind him, making sure he followed as he picked his way over the uneven ground.

John slid down the ladder first, Perej ungracefully flopping down behind him. He steadied the man at the bottom and watched as Kedar replaced the panel before he too retreated underground.

The tunnels shook around them as more blasts pounded the surface.

"You alright?" John asked.

Perej dabbed at the cut on his forehead with a delicate finger and grimaced, "Ya. Just a scratch."

John nodded.

"Well that was way too close for comfort." Perej commented ruefully.

Kedar grinned.

"The refugee group must be coming in from the west. And they must be pretty close or they wouldn't be bombing this far into the city's core." Perej said, thinking out loud.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" John asked. The stone shuddered around them.

Perej paused for a moment.

"Ren won't be able to get anybody past the bombardment." added Kedar, "They'll have to use the tunnels which will take time. The longer it takes for our people to reach those refugees, the more likely they'll get picked off by the raiding party."

"So we need to get there first." John said.

"Ya but we don't know exactly where they are." Kedar pointed out, "That's always been our biggest problem."

Suddenly Perej started off down the corridor, "Follow me. I have an idea." he said over his shoulder, and John and Kedar hurried to catch up.

Perej took them through the tunnels at a brisk walk, weaving through the crowd of people that was flooding into the underground and they came to a storage room with a small collection of weapons. To his delight John found his tac-vest and P-90 and quickly strapped himself in, feeling ridiculously better under the heavy weight.

Finally armed, Perej led them to another access point. John ran some quick calculations in his head and figured they were going to come out about four blocks away from their point of entry. He listened carefully to the concussive booms that now sounded distant and followed the two men up the ladder.

They came out in the middle of the street, the last of the darkness clinging at the edges of the sky.

They followed Perej around the end of the block and came up against a four-story building that towered a full twenty feet above all the others around it.

Eight flights of stairs later and they were standing on the roof looking out across the growing dawn. There was just enough darkness to see the orange-yellow plumes bursting into the sky.

John squinted as the pattern became obvious. They were bombarding in an irregular circle which meant that whatever they were trying to keep Ren's people away from, would probably be dead center.

Perej reached up for the radio in his ear, "Ren, it's Perej. I've got the location for the group. Three blocks north of section two, heading east."

Through the static John made out the Captain's _"Affirmative."_

He suddenly felt Kedar tense up beside him and he glanced over to see the man's perfect composure crack. "Perej! In fifteen minutes the right-hand weapon's phalanx is going to bulldoze through block seven."

"What?" he squinted into the growing light, "Shit!"

"What's block seven?" John asked urgently.

Perej was back on the radio, "Ren! Scramble block seven. I repeat you've got fifteen minutes to get everyone below ground before you've got serious incoming."

"It's the civilian wing, where the women and children…" but he didn't have to finish because John was already racing for the stairs.

Kedar and Perej followed his lead and by the time John realized he had no idea where block seven was, Kedar had taken point and they were sprinting down the street, the unnerving whistles and the sounds of explosions growing louder around them.

By the time they reached the huddled collection of buildings, they were all gasping for air and the ring of destruction was only five minutes behind them.

Full morning had fallen, casting the world in a surreal orange glow, and Perej grabbed John's tac-vest before he could race over to help with the evacuation.

"There's five access points in this block!" he had to yell above the rolling thunder of explosions. "There's a blue 'X' above every door to a house that has one!"

John nodded his comprehension and grinned at his companion. The man smiled back and waived a salute before disappearing into the crowd of frightened civilians.

John located the closest access point that he could see and headed for a group of frightened people milling in the middle of the street. He hopped up on a pile of rubble and waived his arms to get their attention; thankfully they had been looking for guidance so it wasn't too hard.

"Grab everyone you can and follow me!" he shouted.

He led them off to the building he'd singled out and kept his eyes on the floor, trying to spot the metal hatch. Some of the people figured out what he was looking for and turned to help him; the hatch finally revealing itself beneath an old rotten bookshelf. In no time people were streaming steadily down the escape route and John left to head up to the second story.

He peered down at the street in relief to find most of the people gone from sight and it was a good thing too because as he watched, a purple streamer collided with the front buildings of the block across the street. The air rippled with heat waves and another explosion joined the first.

Then his eyes fell across a sight that froze the blood in his veins. His heart did a double lurch and his eyes widened in horror.

There, standing in the middle of the street twenty meters away to his right, was a small child, tears streaming down her face, her cries drowned out by the thunder of death less than a minute away from reaching the street. The early morning sun glinted off of cinnamon locks and John was moving, adrenaline pumping through his body with every desperate thud of his heart.

All he could feel was the shudder of explosions and the waves of heat as he raced down the street, running faster than he ever remembered running before.

He reached the little girl at the same moment that the bombardment reached the street.

He glimpsed purple out of the corner of his eye and swept the child up in his arms, holding her tucked against his chest as the explosion tore the world out around them.

The shockwave knocked him off his feet and he rolled, heat searing across his flesh as he shielded the tiny body beneath him. The impact was so loud he couldn't even hear his own heart beat as he scrambled to his feet. He scanned the buildings in a panic and focused on the blue 'X' hanging above the door like a life line. Another explosion hit the street but he was already rushing for the door. More heat licked at the skin on his back as he leapt through the door and skidded to a stop on the sand covered floor. Pain flared through the muscles of his back and white spots clouded his vision. The stone house groaned around him and he could actually feel it wobble on its foundation as another bomb decimated the street.

Without knowing how, his hand clamped onto the handle of the hatch. Burning hot metal ate away at the skin on his palm as he heaved with all his remaining strength.

The hatch popped open and then the world collapsed.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Holy crap this chapter kicked my butt, 5 600 words and it's already been a week since my last update. This is the transition chapter between the first section and the rest of the story so there was a lot to set up and I struggled with maintaining tension so we'll see how that goes.

Phew so I'm glad that chapter's been written but now that I'm reading it over there's mixed feelings. Oh whatever, I probably just have to stop staring at the darn'd thing.

Thank you for your patience. I'm still looking for a beta...

Disclaimer: Sheppard is not my posession(though sometimes you can dream) but surprisingly everything else is.

* * *

**Part 4**

Yellow flared across his eyelids in a weird rhythmic pattern, each beam speared into his skull and ricocheted through his brain with sharp jabs of pain. A high-pitched noise buzzed in his ears and John squeezed his eyes shut tighter, trying to escape the pounding of his head.

Something shifted on top of him and scraped across his back. The raw nerve-endings flashed up his body screaming and he couldn't draw enough air into his lungs to let it escape.

He struggled to breathe, the heavy mass on top of him grinding the side of his ribcage into the flat stone floor.

The world spiraled and John tensed against the sensation of sliding down a steep incline. His arm tightened around the warm weight against his chest and suddenly he remembered.

His eyes snapped open into darkness.

Yellow flared again; knifing through his eyes, and he caught a glimpse of cracked stone walls before the blackness folded across his vision. It took him two more yellow jabs of pain to realize that it must be the emergency lighting in the tunnel.

He twisted his head slowly, trying to make out his surroundings when his eyes fell across a rock wall of rubble, piled floor to ceiling where the tunnel had completely caved in.

He gasped in another struggling breath, trying to tell himself that it wasn't a big deal. If he could squeeze out from under the jagged pieces of rock on top of him then he'd be fine. John reached out into the darkness and with his forearm, pulled himself forwards. Rubble shifted and his burnt hand knocked against something hard. He grunted in pain, the effort sending his oxygen starved lungs into spasms. White spots bloomed across the yellow and black and John gritted his teeth; if he passed out, he was as good as dead. _They _were as good as dead.

The edges of his vision disappeared and he felt himself losing the battle to stay conscious. John panicked; adrenaline pumping through his limbs as his heart pounded in his ears, keeping time with his head. He pulled himself forwards, wasting everything he had on that last ditch attempt.

Pain exploded across his abused flesh. It ripped through his mind and brought the darkness with it.

He collapsed boneless with exhaustion and the world faded.

------------------------------------------

Consciousness returned when air flooded back into his aching lungs. He coughed and shuddered under the pain it caused as his chest expanded and stretched the tight flesh of his back.

When the pain finally subsided, he registered that he was once again staring into deep brown eyes. Through the fog in his mind, he realized that the threat was sitting on its haunches less than a foot away and John tensed up, pushing through the pain, trying to find an escape.

"Don't move." the assassin's cold voice echoed above the alarms whining through the emergency lit tunnel.

John stilled and the man leaned closer, barely visible in the darkness with his black hair and black clothing. Face blank, Jagger reached across him and grabbed hold of something. His arm flexed and John grunted as agony raced through his entire body like a wild fire.

Blind with pain John lashed out, desperate to stop the torture the man was inflicting on him. Jagger caught his wrist easily, "Save your strength for walking."

The words sank in and John stared up at him startled.

Jagger met his gaze and waited silently. John relaxed his fist and Jagger let him go.

The man turned back to clearing away the rubble that had trapped John beneath its weight.

John endured the agony as each sharp piece of rock brushed against his raw back but Jagger worked quickly and soon he was free, Lily's small frame still held tightly to his chest. Jagger's eyes suddenly widened; the calm mask disappearing for a moment, and John glanced up to find the man staring at the child. He reached out to check her pulse and John fought the urge to pull the girl away from the assassin's touch.

When he looked back at John there was something new in his eyes, "She's unconscious. The med wing isn't far but we'll have to detour around the collapsed section." He stared off into space for a moment, maybe thinking about the route ahead, maybe ordering his thoughts; John couldn't tell but when he turned back the mask was securely back in place.

John didn't want to move no matter how much he knew he had too, his head was pounding but if he stayed perfectly still he could ignore the rest. Nope he definitely didn't want to go anywhere; right here was fine.

Jagger grabbed his arm and tried to unwind it from around Lily's tiny body but John resisted, still not sure that she wasn't the only reason Jagger was trying to help him.

The man sighed, "Look, I don't care if you want to die, it's not my problem. But the kid's getting out of here and seeing as how weak you are, the person who's going to be carrying her is me."

The guy had a point, he was Lily's best chance and John would be damned if he was going to drag her down with him. He stopped resisting and allowed Jagger to lift her gently from his arms.

John closed his eyes but jerked them back open in surprise when a hand returned to slipped back under his arm. Before John could come to the realization that the assassin was actually helping him, Jagger hauled him upwards. The world tipped sickeningly and John found himself leaning against the man's chest as he struggled to get his legs to cooperate. Finally he felt himself steady and he straightened up until he was more or less on his feet.

The man collected the girl back up to hold her one handed against his chest before draping John's arm across his shoulders and snaking a hand around to grab the back of his belt. His arm barely brushed John's back and it still sent liquid fire searing through his veins, but he bullied through the pain, focusing all his attention on putting one foot in front of the other as they started down the yellow and black corridor.

It wasn't easy going; large chunks of the roof had shaken free and shattered on the floor, coating it like loose shale. Nevertheless, the assassin was sure-footed and supported John through the worst as his weak legs would slide out from under him and try to drag him back down to the floor.

They continued in silence, with only the yellow strobe light to guide their way and only the shrill alarm to keep them company. It felt like eternity as they plodded along and John zoned out at some point because suddenly they were in a brightly lit passageway and there were people.

The bustle of activity reminded him of a disturbed anthill and he figured that was pretty much what it was. They hobbled past people with shocked expressions and dirt staining their faces and other people filed by barely glancing in their direction as they rushed to where ever they were going.

Jagger took them around a corner and John found himself focusing on a woman whose tears were tracking down the soot covering her cheeks as she stared into nothing. As he watched, another woman enveloped her shuddering frame in capable arms, her lips moving silently with meaningless words of comfort. The woman didn't respond and John turned away, recognizing the look in her eyes for what it was; losing everything.

He let his eyes drift to Lily tucked safely against the man's shoulder and he lost himself in the comfort of watching her small chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm. He'd made a difference, however small it was, and he wasn't going to let himself forget it because that was the only thing stopping the helplessness from taking over and freezing him in his tracks.

The volume of the people in the corridors increased as they got closer to the med wing and soon it wasn't dirt covering their faces, it was blood. John stared at the exhausted people in confusion until his slow thoughts finally caught up with what he was seeing and he realized these injured were the overflow. The realization came just as they passed through a pair of double doors and suddenly the smell of blood in the air was so thick it coated the back of his throat and he could taste it.

It was chaos; people in red lab coats weaved through the destruction of human flesh, and the injured and dying moaned on the floor in every conceivable place as they waited treatment from the shorthanded staff. The only places to walk between the bodies were slick with blood as it drained away in rivulets through the grate in the center of the room.

Without any hesitation, Jagger pulled him further into the chaos and a man wearing the one of the red lab coats spotted them and walked swiftly over to meet them. John recognized the man named Athos beneath the grime and as he came closer, John realized the lab coat was white, or it was supposed to be.

The man gave John a tired smile then turned to Jagger and John watched his eyes widen as they fell across Lily's small form. "Holy shit. I'll go get Mavrek," he said suddenly and he was rushing away. John stared after him, wondering if he'd managed to give himself brain damage with his latest screw-up because he couldn't connect what the hell that meant either.

Right before he disappeared through the door Athos turned back and motioned to Jagger, "Take them to the back area, down the hallway and third door on your right. And tell Cas." and he left.

Jagger did as instructed and picked their way carefully through the room. John's head was starting to pound again and his legs nearly gave out in relief when they reached the exit as he fought down the urge to gag. Jagger must have felt the weakening of his limbs because he tightened his hold; his arm came in contact with burnt flesh and black spots danced in John's vision as pain exploded across his back.

The world faded in and out after that, because one moment they were in a sterile white hallway and the next he was lying face down on something soft as a strange coolness was spreading across the tortured muscles of his back and quenching the fire that had been burning beneath his skin.

He sank down into comfortable bliss after that.

An indeterminable amount of time later, John snapped awake to the heavy bang of a door slamming open. His eyes focused sluggishly onto the flurry of movement as the second in command stormed into the room. John caught one glimpse of the dangerous look in his eyes and he was reaching for weapons, his mind going blank as new adrenaline surged through his veins. His heartbeat spiked and sharp beeps echoed as he realized his P-90 was gone.

The man wildly scanned across the space and his body shook with visible tension.

John felt the temperature in the room drop against the exposed flesh of his back as the dark look on the man's face settled onto him. He started forwards and John tensed, the tightening of his muscles sending jabs of pain through the fuzzy layer of drugs in his system.

Suddenly there was someone standing in the doorway and the man spun around. The doctor in the white lab coat regarded the second in command calmly as the man prowled towards him like a caged tiger.

"Tell me." the man commanded in an icy tone.

The doctor smiled tiredly, "Mavrek, she's fine."

John watched startled as the man before him abruptly deflated, the words smothering the tension in the room. Mavrek put a hand out and caught himself against the door jam as his shoulders shook and he visibly struggled to keep himself from collapsing.

John forced his own body to relax as the man buried his face in shaking hands, the rapid beating of his heart gradually slowed and the doctor glanced in his direction with an apologetic smile.

There was another commotion out in the hall and the woman John had met earlier entered the room, blue eyes flashing in horror as they fell across Mavrek leaning weakly against the wall.

Lily's mother crossed the distance to the second in command, tears already streaming down her face. Mavrek looked up, eyes red-rimmed and exhausted, and folded the woman gently in his arms. "She's alright," he said softly.

They clung to each other, Mavrek combing shaking fingers through her hair as the woman cried into his shoulder.

"She's alright."

John turned away from the couple, trying as best he could to disappear from the room while he was laying immobile face down on a hospital bed.

The doctor cleared his throat, "I can take you to her now if you'd like. She's sleeping but I suspect she'll be waking up soon."

Mavrek nodded at the man. He straightened up after collecting himself and John felt the dangerous edge leave the room. He unwound the woman from his arms and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead, "You go with Cas, I'll come join you in a sec."

The woman nodded and the doctor turned to let her past. Mavrek and Cas made eye contact and something silent passed between them before the doctor followed the woman out and left John alone with the second in command.

The man stared after the door for a moment before turning to John. He took two steps further into the room and stopped. John watched him warily as the man's gaze darted down to the floor, searching for words.

"I don't know what possessed you to do something so stupid," he said, his eyes suddenly blazing, "but there's nothing of equal value that I have to give in return for what you gave me. My thanks alone can never pay this debt but I'll say it anyways for myself, for my wife, for my daughter. So Thank you." his gaze skittered away again. "Sometimes it's hard to see the difference you make in a war that's been going on for fifty years. You save one, twenty more die and it hardly matters because a hundred people die a day." He met John's eyes, imploring him to understand, "You risked everything to make a small difference but it made a big difference to me." He nodded to himself and straightened up to snap off a perfect salute.

He left the room with a small smile.

Partial silence descended in his wake and John's eyelids became heavy as he listened to the soothing rhythm of the heart monitor. He found himself drifting back into sweet oblivion with the cushioning of the drugs to keep him comfortable.

"Wake me up sometime next week," he mumbled to the empty room and smiled because yeah, he had managed to make a difference, however big it was.

---------------------------------------------------

The next time John woke up was to find Perej standing over him with a grin on his face.

He took a moment to take stock of the situation and to do a quick inventory. He was lying on his back in a different room and he could tell there were fewer drugs in his system just by the clarity of his thoughts. He shifted around trying to figure out how much he hurt and found out it was on a scale of extremely less than before, and then he realized that the pounding in his head was gone which made him smile because things were looking up. He was about to say something about it but the first word came out as an unintelligible croak but then Perej was holding water in front of his face and the cool liquid was soothing down his parched throat.

"Thanks." John finally managed and the man before him beamed.

"You're awake," he said, almost bouncing on his toes.

"Uh yeah." John replied, arching an eyebrow.

Perej correctly interpreted the look to mean 'why the hell are you so happy' and plowed into an explanation, "You slept forever and I was beginning to think I was going to miss you."

The other eyebrow joined the first, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Day and a half."

John stared at him startled; he'd been expecting something more along the lines of three or four days, there's no way he should be feeling this good, maybe he was on better drugs than he'd thought. He lifted up his left hand to inspect the damage and peeked beneath the white bandage to find delicate pink skin across his palm where welts and tattered skin had been yesterday. _Ooh k, advanced medicine, right._

"Huh." he said.

Perej pulled up a chair and flopped into it, arranging himself sprawled with one leg over the armrest. "Heard you rescued Lily. I know Jagger went after you but I think even he was surprised by that one." The man laughed, "Gotta get you to teach me how you do that; I've never managed to surprise the man."

"Wait you said something about not being able to see me later?" John asked because he was still trying to figure out that earlier statement.

"Oh right ya, Boss says we need food and I'm the one in charge of planning the trip to the store, so to speak. We leave later tonight, hopefully be back before sun-up." Perej shrugged, "It's one of the more routine missions."

John frowned, he remembered the Captain saying something about needing to do a grocery run. "It's still a go even after the attack?"

Perej spread his hands, "Hey don't look at me, but she knows what she's doing." he smirked, "And that wasn't an attack."

"It wasn't?"

"Attacks are more direct – less bombing more fighting. Nah, yesterday they just got lucky." he saw John's expression, "Really really lucky."

John harrumphed and the man who he was starting to think of as his friend laughed.

"So how long am I holed up here for."

"Why, you planning an escape? Cause I would offer Kedar's services but I think Cas would still manage to trace the sent back to me and I'd rather stay med wing free for a few weeks if you get my drift."

It was John's turn to laugh; something's would always stay constant.

"You'll probably be releasable tomorrow but don't tell Cas I said that, he hates it when people spill that kind of info. It's usually his little secret that he likes to hold over our heads while he says 'Behave' with that bland expression on his face which means 'or else'."

"Sounds just like home." and it did. John smiled but it was bittersweet. He pushed past the sudden pangs of longing and drew himself away from the memories to focus back on his new friend, but a serious look had settled over Perej's face.

"Hey uh, look, thanks." he said quietly, "Mavrek's a good guy, losing his family would destroy him and he doesn't deserve that. He's already sacrificed so much for this cause and any one of us would do anything to stop that from happening, but you can't do it all, right?" he smiled but his eyes were haunted, "You've barely bin here for three days and this isn't even your fight so we owe you. Got it? You need anything, we're there."

Before John could come up with a suitable thank you, the seriousness had disappeared and the man was smiling again.

"Oh I almost forgot! Hell I even won the coin toss to get to tell you. They finally managed to trace the Window that got you here. Turns out it originated in an outpost not far from this location, the one that's been the command center for the offensive against us. But what's really interesting is the fact that the garbled residual points to it being a surge from another window that spanned a longer distance than anything we've recorded."

"Great so your enemies brought me here but how do I get back?"

Perej shrugged, not fazed by the heat in John's question, "We use Windows everyday but that doesn't mean we understand everything about them. They could have been testing new technology and a glitch forced you here by mistake or maybe they were trying to create a Window to your world in the first place. I wouldn't know but at least this narrows the possibilities."

"Ya I guess it does."

He grinned and unfolded himself from the chair, "I gotta get going, I said I was planning this little trip so I better get busy." he snorted and patted John on the leg, "See ya later." He headed for the door and stopped at the last minute, "Behave." he said with a blank expression and he disappeared, laughter echoing behind him.

-----------------------------------------------------

Captain Price watched the man leave the room from the shadows across the hallway.

The group of refugees trying to enter the city had been the perfect distraction and he'd snuck in amidst all the commotion.

Only one person would see him and then he'd be gone again, easy and efficient, it was his job after all. However, he needed to do this fast because eventually someone was going to notice him and in a place like this where everyone knew everyone else, he would be an instant target. Captain Shale had managed to catch the spies they'd sent because it was nearly impossible to integrate into the society successfully and blending with the crowd wasn't an option. They had been stupid but Price knew what he was here for and if he managed to pull this off quickly than no one would be the wiser.

He pulled out the knife from his inner pocket. Commander Aubrey had said bring him back alive and if you can't, kill him. Price had been disappointed to learn the man had survived after that stunt he'd pulled; it would have made his life easier. As it was, Price knew the man wasn't going to leave these people willingly which left him with the option of taking the man hostage but Price knew he'd never make it out of here with the man in tow.

The man was still recovering which meant now would be the best time to kill him but the more Price thought about it the more he realized that there might be another way to bring him back to the base.

If he could pull this off, he might even get a promotion out of the deal. He liked the sound of that and put away the knife.

He looked down at himself, adjusted his clothing before schooling his features and dredging up a genial smile. He relaxed until he felt himself sink comfortably into the personae he was trying to portray and walked into the man's room.

The man glanced up in surprise at the sudden intrusion.

"Hi, I just got here yesterday but I overheard the man talking to you." he pointed a thumb at the door behind him, "There's a lot of talk going around about you saving that girl and about your predicament and I thought maybe I can help."

He focused a hopeful look on the man sitting self-consciously in bed.

"Oh uh, yeah maybe."

"I used to work in that outpost as a janitor; actually that's why I'm here instead - I saw something I shouldn't've and they caught on so I got out of there as fast as I could. That man, who just left, he guessed right, they are doing tests. They're trying to come up with an untraceable Window. Something about alternate realities in other worlds. They have a prototype." he ended excitedly.

The man perked up at that. "Would you know if it's still operational?"

"They had some kind of problem with it but the last I heard they'd managed to get it running again just before I left."

"You said you were a janitor? Would you know the layout?"

"Like the back of my hand." and he let a small amount of pride enter his voice. "I could draw you a map." he said suddenly as if he'd only just thought of it.

The man nodded and Price searched around for something to write on, he settled for a napkin and he took a few minutes to carefully sketch the bases layout. He wasn't worried about giving it away because frankly Captain Shale had served in the base longer than Price himself so she probably knew it better than even he did.

He finished the last details and smiled at his accomplishment; the man had swallowed the bait. He handed over the rough floor plan.

He carefully let his excitement dim, "I don't know how you're going to get in though because they have a lot of guards and patrols. If I still had my janitor card I'd give it to you, that way you could get access to all the sectors."

The man glanced up from examining the napkin, "I'll find a way. I have to…" he muttered, his gaze going distant.

Price nodded, "Well I better let you rest, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. I…I appreciate what you did." he finished softly.

The man looked back at him and smiled, "This is help enough." he motioned to the map. "Thanks."

"Right, bye then." and he left the room, barely controlling the smirk that threatened to collapse his carefully constructed façade.

Now all he had to do was get back to base and wait for his prey to come to him.

As he walked down the corridor, Price never saw the shadowy figure of a man watching him leave.

-------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in another section of the med wing, Captain Ren Shale walked into Doctor Caspian Vandreth's office and lent casually against the wall, waiting for the man to look up from his desk. The man had called her down here to talk like he sometimes did so she left it up to him.

"Do you trust him?" he started without looking up.

"Yes." she answered simply.

He finally looked at her, "It isn't because he saved Lily is it? Because if I remember correctly you were the one who said that when someone does something to help you, it doesn't mean that that person isn't doing it for himself."

"No, it's because Jagger told me I could."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, "And that's enough."

"Yes it is." She held up a hand against his protests, "Reading people is half of his job."

"Oh yeah, right next to the other half which is _killing _people."

She shrugged, "You're a doctor, he's an assassin, there's not much I can do about that. The point is, despite the fact that he will barely trust anyone, he knows, with ninety percent accuracy, whether someone _can _be trusted."

"And you just let him kill the ones he doesn't trust?" the doctor scowled darkly.

She sighed in exasperation, shaking her head at him, "You'd be surprised at how much the two of you have in common."

He frowned, "You know how to help him don't you."

She didn't even blink at the sudden change of subject, "Maybe."

"What?" he asked; noting her expression.

She glanced away, her face serious again. "Something's about to happen. I can practically feel it building in the distance like a storm that I can see in my peripheral vision when I don't look too hard."

"And you think it might have something to do with this man?"

"No but if I commit to helping him it might be the equivalent to signing our death warrant."

"Whoa wait a minute, what kind of 'Something' are we talking about here?"

"I've been getting reports of supplies and re-enforcements that have been trickling into Aubrey's outpost for the past two weeks and we haven't managed to do enough damage for any of it to be necessary which means he's stocking up for something."

"Ya but he still has to deal with Commander Frey and the other half of this war. He could be expending all his resources against her forces."

Ren shook her head, "All it would take is one major assault while we're preoccupied and we'd be crippled; it's what I'd do if I was in his position. He has a plan and now all he has to do is wait."

The doctor frowned, "If we're already dead, then why not just help the man escape back to his world?"

She smiled, "Because sooner or later Aubrey's going to get impatient."

Cas chuckled, "Right." he shrugged, "Well that's all I wanted to know." he made a shooing gesture.

The Captain grinned and left him to his work.

----------------------------------------------------

Laurance followed the man down the empty corridors of the most remote sections leading off from the med wing, his blood boiling in his veins as he watched the man in growing anger.

It was Captain Price, he was sure of it now. The slimy snake had somehow snuck his way in but Laurance would be damned if he was going to let the man slip back out.

The manipulative bastard hadn't changed since Laurance had first met him. He was still playing his games and slithering his way up the ranks. Laurance didn't know what interest the man had in John but he intended to find out and then he was going to turn the serpent over to Jagger and let the man toy with him for a while, he'd probably love the challenge.

The man disappeared around a corner and Laurance pulled out his gun, instincts raising the hair on the back of his neck and telling him Price had noticed his approach.

He slowed when he came to the corner and spun around it, gun first.

Price slammed Laurance's hand against the wall and the gun went skittering down the passageway. Laurance ducked the man's punch and landed one of his own in his adversary's gut. Price stumbled back with a grunt and Laurance followed him. They clashed again, fists launched at faces and blocked away. Price ducked beneath Laurance's guard and reached for the knife in his inner pocket. Laurance saw the menacing flash a second too late and felt the red hot line of pain as the man sliced across his chest. He backed away, his hand going to stem the blood spreading across his shirt. Price settled into a defensive stance, the toothy grin on his face shinning like the blade held steady in his fist.

"You should have shot me earlier while you had the chance, Laurance." he laughed.

Laurance glanced behind the man to the gun lying in the center of the corridor. Price saw his sudden distraction and leapt forwards, knife tearing through the air in a straight jab. Laurance twisted away, the blade nicking the side of his arm as he dove past Price.

The Captain growled in frustration and spun around, trying to catch Laurance with a backhanded slice. Laurance rolled and Price's eyes widened as he spotted the gun. He swore and launched himself forward. The palm of Laurance's hand met metal and his fingers closed around the gunstock, he twisted around just as Price leapt for him.

The gun went off with a bang that echoed down the corridor with concussive force, Price crashed on top of him and Laurance gasped, suddenly breathless. Warm blood spread across his chest and he struggled to breath under the man's dead weight. He tried to push the man off him but he frowned when he realized he couldn't feel his fingers anymore.

Price chuckled at the man's stunned expression and it built into a laugh that cackled away down the empty corridor. He levered himself up until he was sitting on his knees and looked down at Laurance. Blood snaked down his arm from the bullet hole in shoulder but he ignored it.

Laurance watched helplessly as the man lent forwards and gripped the handled of the knife jutting from his chest. He grinned, "Looks like I won this one." and he pulled.

Laurance screamed. The knife ripped from his flesh with a sucking sound and blood gushed from the gaping hole. He coughed, tasting copper, and another desperate breath wheezed into his tattered lungs.

Price watched him struggle for a moment before giving him a flippant salute, "Well must be off, lots to prepare. Too bad I can't leave Ren a card, oh well, you'll have to do. If you see her, tell her I said hi."

The man disappeared from Laurance's vision and the echoing of the man's footsteps became the sluggish beating of his heart as his lifeblood pooled out on the floor around him.

Cold sliced through the fabric of his shirt and he couldn't stop shivering. He gasped in a rattling lungful of air and struggled for a second but his chest seized up and he was choking.

The stone ceiling above him weaved in and out and Laurance watched as the darkness crept in.

The last thing that Laurance would remember would be the fear…

Because he'd failed…

* * *


End file.
